Act 3, Scene 1

[Baptista’s house. Enter Bianca, followed by Lucentio (as the language teacher Cambio) and Hortensio (as the music teacher Litio). Neither Lucentio nor Hortensio knows that their fellow teacher is actually a suitor just pretending to be a teacher.]

Lucentio (as a language teacher)

Performance

Lucentio, Hortensio, and Bianca, Lines 1-25

Fiddler, forbear; you grow too forward, sir.

Have you so soon forgot the entertainment

Her sister Katherine welcomed you withal?

Hortensio (as a music teacher)

But, wranglingpedant, this is

The patroness of heavenly harmony.

Then give me leave to have prerogative,

And when in music we have spent an hour,

Lucentio

Hold on, fiddler. You’re too eager. Did you already forget how her sister Katherina thanked you last time?

Hortensio

You quarrelsome teacher. Bianca is the queen of heavenly harmony. Let me go first, and once we’ve had a music lesson for an hour, you can lecture her for the same amount of time.

Lucentio

You foolish ass, you haven’t read enough to know why music was created. Was it not to refresh a man’s mind after his studies or his daily work? Let me read my philosophy, and you can teach music when I take a break.

Hortensio

Hey, I won’t stand for your teasing.

Your lecture shall have leisure for as much.

Lucentio

Preposterous ass, that never read so far

To know the cause why music was ordained!

Was it not to refresh the mind of man

After his studies or his usual pain?

Then give me leave to read philosophy,

And while I pause, serve in your harmony.

Hortensio

Sirrah, I will not bear these braves of thine.

Bianca

Why, gentlemen, you do me double wrong

To strive for that which resteth in my choice.

I am no breeching scholar in the schools,

I'll not be tied to hours, nor 'pointed times,

But learn my lessons as I please myself.

And, to cut off all strife, here sit we down.

Bianca

Gentlemen, you’re both doing me wrong, trying to settle something that’s for me to decide. I’m no schoolgirl for you to scold. I won’t be tied to some schedule and its appointed times. I’ll learn my lessons the way I want to learn them. To end this argument, let’s all sit down. Litio, start playing your instrument; Cambio’s lecture will be done before you’ve even tuned it.

Hortensio

Lucentio

Hortensio

No, the bass is fine. It’s this base jerk who’s out of line. [Aside] This teacher is so spirited and eager. I swear, the jerk is after my love. Pretentious little professor… I’ll keep my eye on you.

Bianca

[To Lucentio] Maybe I’ll trust you eventually, but I don’t believe you yet.

Lucentio

[Aside to Bianca] Believe me — [aloud] for it’s certain that Aeacides is another name for Ajax. He was called that because of his grandfather.

Bianca

I guess I have to believe my teacher. Otherwise, I swear I’d still be arguing with you on that point. But let’s forget it. Now, Litio, it’s your turn. Good teachers, please don’t take it the wrong way that I’ve been so playful with you both.

[To Lucentio] Now let me see if I can construe it:

'Hic Ibat Simois,' I know you not; 'hic est Sigeia tellus,'

I trust you not; 'Hic steterat Priami,' take heed he hear us not;

'regia,' presume not; 'celsa senis,' despair not.

Hortensio

Madam, 'tis now in tune.

[He plays again]

Lucentio

All but the bass.

Hortensio

The bass is right; 'tis the base knave that jars.

[Aside] How fiery and forward our pedant is!

Now, for my life, the knave doth court my love.

Pedascule, I'll watch you better yet.

Bianca

[Aside to Lucentio] In time I may believe, yet I mistrust.

Lucentio

[Aside to Bianca] Mistrust it not — [Aloud] for, sure, Aeacides

Was Ajax, called so from his grandfather.

Literary Allusion

Aeacides, Ajax

[Click to see note.]

Literary Allusion

Aeacides, Ajax

Lucentio and Bianca are pretending to be discussing Ovid’s book. Lucentio says that the character who Ovid refers to as Aeacides is actually the Greek warrior Ajax. Bianca disagrees. The well-educated in Shakespeare’s audience would have realized that Bianca is correct. Bianca’s also implying that she doubts not only Lucentio’s claim about Ovid, but also his claim that he loves her.

Bianca

[Aloud] I must believe my master; else, I promise you,

I should be arguing still upon that doubt,

But let it rest. [To Hortensio] Now, Litio, to you.

Good master, take it not unkindly, pray,

That I have been thus pleasant with you both.

Hortensio

[To Lucentio] You may go walk, and give me leave awhile.

My lessons make no music in three parts.

Lucentio

Are you so formal, sir? Well, I must wait.

[Aside] And watch withal, for, but I be deceived,

Our fine musician groweth amorous.

[He stands aside]

Hortensio

Performance

Hortensio and Bianca, Lines 62-79

Madam, before you touch the instrument,

To learn the order of my fingering,

I must begin with rudiments of art,

To teach you gamut in a briefer sort,

Word Nerd

Gamut

[Click to see note.]

Word Nerd

Gamut

Gamut, or gamma, is the third letter in the ancient Greek alphabet. In very early times, gamma was the symbol used to represent the first note in the musical scale. Later, it came to refer to the entire scale, and that’s how Hortensio and Bianca are using it here. Today, we use gamut in a more broader sense, to refer to the full range of anything, in expressions such as “the full gamut” of something.

More pleasant, pithy and effectual

Hortensio

[To Lucentio] Go take a walk, and leave us alone for a while. I don’t have music for a third player.

Lucentio

Hortensio

Madam, before you touch the instrument, I have to teach you the basics of the art so you can learn the right fingering. I’ll teach you scales efficiently. It’ll be more pleasant, quick, and effective than the way other music teachers do it. There it is in writing, neatly written.

Bianca

I learned scales a long time ago.

Hortensio

Well, read Hortensio’s scale anyway.

Than hath been taught by any of my trade,

And there it is in writing, fairly drawn.

Bianca

Why, I am past my gamut long ago.

Hortensio

Yet read the gamut of Hortensio.

Bianca

[Reads the scale which he has written out for her]

Gamut — I am the ground of all accord,

Double Meaning

“Gamut – I am the ground of all accord”

[Click to see note.]

Double Meaning

“Gamut – I am the ground of all accord”

If we read this as part of Hortensio’s secretive message, it means something like, “This is the beginning (ground) for my permission (accord) to plead Hortensio’s passion.” In the musical sense, Bianca is saying, “Gamut (in its sense as the first note in the scale) is the base note (ground) in any chord (accord).”

A re — to plead Hortensio's passion.

B mi — Bianca, take him for thy lord,

C fa ut — that loves with all affection.

Bianca

[Reads] “I’m a scale, the foundation of any harmony. A, re, pleading for Hortensio’s love; B mi, Bianca, take him as your husband; C fa ut, since he loves you with all his heart; D sol re, I’m two notes in one; E la mi, pity me, or I’ll die.” You call this a scale? Well I don’t like it. I prefer the old fashioned way. I’m not so picky that you need to change the old rules for strange new ideas.

[Enter a Servant]

Servant

Mistress, your father wants you to leave your lessons and help decorate your sister’s room. You know tomorrow is her wedding day.

Bianca

Goodbye, my dear teachers. I have to go.

[Exeunt Bianca and Servant]

Lucentio

Well if you go, mistress, then I have no reason to stay.

[Exit Lucentio]

Hortensio

But I have a reason to investigate this teacher. He looks like he’s in love. Bianca, if your thoughts are so lowly that you’d fall for any old decoy, then let them win you. If I ever find you straying, I’ll get even with you by changing my affections, too.

D sol re — One clef, two notes have I.

Cultural Context

“D sol re — One clef, two notes have I”

[Click to see note.]

Cultural Context

“D sol re — One clef, two notes have I”

In the musical notation of the time, D represented two notes, “sol” in one scale and “re” in another. Similarly, Hortensio has two identities (his real one and that of Litio), and two options (win Bianca or die).

E la mi — Show pity, or I die.'

Call you this ‘gamut’? Tut, I like it not.

Old fashions please me best; I am not so nice

To change true rules for odd inventions.

[Enter a Servant]

Servant

Mistress, your father prays you leave your books

And help to dress your sister's chamber up.

You know tomorrow is the wedding day.

Bianca

Farewell, sweet masters both, I must be gone.

[Exeunt Bianca and Servant]

Lucentio

Faith, mistress, then I have no cause to stay.

[Exit Lucentio]

Hortensio

But I have cause to pry into this pedant;

Methinks he looks as though he were in love.

Yet if thy thoughts, Bianca, be so humble

To cast thy wandering eyes on every stale,

Seize thee that list. If once I find thee ranging,

Hortensio will be quit with thee by changing.

Metaphor

“cast thy wandering eyes on every stale ... find thee ranging”

[Click to see note.]

Metaphor

“cast thy wandering eyes on every stale ... find thee ranging”

Hortensio is using a metaphor from the sport of hawking to describe Bianca’s potential loose behavior. A stale is a live decoy used to attract birds for the hawks to kill, much like the wooden decoys used by duck hunters today. And if a hawk chases after every bird that comes along (like a promiscuous woman), it’s said to be ranging.

Note how Shakespeare has ended this scene, as he often does, with a rhyming couplet: “ranging” and “changing.”